Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo has defended his decision to get a tattoo, insisting that there is no biblical prohibition against Christians having body markings.
Founder of the David Christian Centre and popular relationship coach, Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo, has doubled down on his decision to get a tattoo, saying there is no scripture that forbids a child of God from having one. The cleric recently unveiled a tattoo reading “3:16” in Roman numerals, a reference to John 3:16 in the Bible, which sparked widespread debate and criticism on social media.
Critics of the decision cited Leviticus 19:28, which states, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord,” arguing that the passage forbids tattoos. However, Okonkwo dismissed the interpretation, describing the backlash as an attempt to impose personal or denominational preferences on others.
Responding in an interview, the pastor said, “There’s no scripture that says a child of God cannot have tattoo. So, people are (just) doing personal preference, or what the Holy Spirit told them, or their church’s preferences. They want to impose this on other people, and that’s not how this works. Everyone needs to know Christ and the word of God.” He added, “Somebody needs to sit me down and say tattoos are bad because if somebody draws ink on their body, their brain goes bad; if somebody draws ink on their body, their character suddenly goes bad. They must give me scriptural or scientific proof, or something to back this up.” He further argued, “Nobody can tell me why tattoo is bad. It’s just bad because… no reason. This kind of thinking is saddening for me because how is Africa going to catch up with development if we are still thinking ‘oh, somebody wore jeans and went to rob, so jeans are now bad. Pastor cannot wear jeans because last week somebody wore jeans and went to rob a bank’. What are we talking about? So, I don’t see the basis.”